Fears paedophiles exploiting system to get access to children

“A lot of people are also approaching this subject from the rights of the people who seek surrogacy, the rights of the surrogate mother, the rights of the hospitals and clinics,” Mr Smirnoff said.

“But very few people, I think, until this time, were talking about the rights of the child.

“[That] they have to enjoy all their rights and protection is one of the fundamental rights they need to enjoy.

“It is a state party duty to put those checks in place, to ensure that the child is protected and all violence towards them is being prevented.”

Mr Smirnoff says it is possible paedophiles are exploiting a loophole in the system.

“It’s not just this system, they (paedophiles) are quite good at abusing any system. Especially this system, because right now it has these big sort of chunks that are missing, so they’ll just abuse it, abuse the opportunity,” he said.

“If you know you are a paedophile and you think, ‘How can I get access to a child reasonably easy and reasonably soon?’, surrogacy is definitely an interesting opportunity for you, especially if you have the money.”